The North-South Divide as issue of modern United Kingdom described as a economical gap

between the Northern and Southern part of the country.

The United Kingdom consists of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and it

exists in a way as one country with one national government , budget, monarchy and so on.

It appears that all of those part are treated equally in any matter, however it is utterly

different. This phenomena is called the North-South divide and affects on the lives of many

British people in many sphere of life, but mainly economical and infrastructural.

The North-South divide is, as the Cambridge Dictionary says, the difference in

conditions, especially economic, between the poorer areas in the north and the richer areas

in the south of the country. The line between the richer and poorer part is conventional and

there is no map that can definitely say where the line should be, however it is well-known

that the South area is mainly with the capital city which is London and the territory around

it. Clearly, the only way of understanding the meaning of this term is to examine the data

that confirm the existence of gap between the South and the North.

The first thing that should be checked is the public spending in the United Kingdom.

Public spending are the outgoings incurred by government and spend on for instance

defence, education, health or infrastructure and it is supported by taxes. It is simply the

money that government spend in the certain area of the United Kingdom on the particular

sector. The most recent data is from 2013 along with the division of the amount of money

between the certain areas in the United Kingdom. In 2013 the expenditure was 673 billion ,

from which 78 billion went to London itself, 30 billion to Wales , 54 billion to Scotland,

the North West gained 65,6 billion, however the North East only 24,5 billion. In 2014 the
expenditure was 714 billion, however it is interesting how much the gap between the

poorer for instance Scotland or Wales and the rich London increased.

The employment rate survey from December 2014 is another confirmation of the

existence of the North-South divide. It says that the highest employment rate was in the East

of England and the South East, which was 76,5%, however the lowest was in Wales, which

was 68,5%. The average employment rate between August and October 2014 was 73% and

mostly places which are assume to belong to the North of the North-South divide have

percentage smaller than the average number. For instance Yorkshire and the Humber, North

East and West Midlands belong to this group. The unemployment rate in the United

Kingdom for the period from August to October 2014 was 6,0%. The highest rate is for the

North East ( 9,1% ) ,Wales along with the Yorkshire and the Humbler ( 7.1 % ) and the West

Midlands ( 6,8%). It is easy to predict that the lowest rate of unemployment is in the South

East ( 4,6 %), the South West ( 4,8% ) and the East of England ( 5,0% ). All of these not only

are below the average rate, but also are locate on the South part of the North-South divide.

Interesting fact is that London, which is on the South, is among the areas which are below

the average rate of employment and with the 6,5% of unemployment rate what is above the

average number. However it does not mean that London shows that the North-South divide

is not real. In fact, the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings ( ASHE ) shows that London is

the place with the highest median full-time gross weekly earnings in the United Kingdom and

the gap between the capital city and other regions is great. It had 660 per week. It is 119

more than the second highest which is the South East with 514 per week. In 2014 the

average median earning in the United Kingdom was 518. Above the average from the

regions of the Northern part of North-South divide was only Scotland. With the lowest

weekly earnings were people from Northern Ireland and Wales.

 Of course, those statistics do not say in a definite way that the problem of the North-

South divide is serious, but almost any of this kind of surveys shows that there is an

economical gap between them for instance a survey about house price rates in the UK. The

average percentage is 10.4 and London has the highest house price rate which is 17.2 and

the second one is South East with 11.9 however it is not as much a surprise as it could be if

not the knowledge about the median earnings in those territories, which is the largest in the

whole UK. The lowest house price rates are in all of the North regions of the North-South

divide, where also are the lowest earnings and the higher percentage of jobs paid below the

National Minimum Wage ( NMW ). The survey from April 2014 showed that the highest

proportion of low paid jobs with 2.2% of jobs which were below the NMW was the Northern

Ireland and the second one was the North East with 1.2% of jobs below the NMW.

There is also a gap between London itself and the rest of the United Kingdom in

terms of investment in infrastructure. Report by IPPR (the Institute for Public Policy Research

) indicates that citizens of London receive 5,203 more per head on capital investment than

people in the north-east. The gap is so great that the second region in the table with the

highest spend per resident was North-West with 1,248, what is over 4 times smaller.

However, the most surprising is the difference between the highest London and the lowest

North-East, where per resident is spend 223, what is over 23 times smaller and that is

deeply disturbing. One can say that all these are just statistics and they do not reflect the

real situation that is happening in the United Kingdom and those numbers do not show

everything. Nevertheless, it is enough to study a number of surveys or bulletins of Office of

National Statistics and so on to see a kind of pattern which resembles the conventional line

between the richer and poorer part of the country. London has the employment rate below

the average number and the unemployment rate above the average number and also the
house price rates are the highest in the whole country, but the weekly earnings or the

investments of the government in this region in for instance infrastructure makes the capital

city attractive for many British people. It is also easy to notice that the regions from the

North of North-South divide are almost in any table at the bottom with the worst rate,

preceded almost always by all regions from the South. As an example, Wales is an area with

a big unemployment rate, it has the employment rate the lowest of all the regions, the

house price rates are one of the smallest in the whole United Kingdom, however it does not

mean that it is easier for Welsh people to buy house there, because only Northern Ireland

has lower median of full-time gross weekly earnings than Wales. Those statistics can help to

notice that there is in fact a problem with a difference in conditions between the North and

the South.

The poverty rate presented for three years average shows that all of the northern

regions are above the average in each of the year. This is a percentage of individuals in

relative low income by regions and it shows that with or without housing costs Yorkshire and

Humber, North East, West Midlands, North West and London are above the United

Kingdoms average, only East Midlands after housing costs are below the average. London s

poverty rate is 28% after housing costs, which is 7% more than the countrys average and

before housing costs it has 16%, only 1% above the average. The first big number is not a

surprise since the house price rates in London are the biggest in the whole country. The rest

of the South like South East, South West and East of England are managing well.

There are people who discern the issue of North-South divide. Recently, George

Osborne, who has been the Conservative MP for Tatton and in May 2010 he became

Chancellor of the Exchequer, supported a plan to invest 15 billion in to a plan to improve

infrastructure in five northern cities like Newcastle, Liverpool, Sheffield, Manchester and
Leeds. His main point was To end the imbalance in the UK economy so our success is not

wholly dependent on the global city of London, so we have across the north of England

individual cities that are better connected, have a better quality of life, and are able to

create. His words was not empty, because this Road Investment Plan was introduced to

the Parliament on the 1 December 2014 with all the detail what it suppose to improve. This

is the first step to maybe not to end but to decrease the infrastructural gap between London

and the North.

For some the North-South divide is a myth or simply never existed, however

it not hard to see that there is a difference between regions located on the South, near the

capital city and the other located on the North. The division is mainly about the economical

gap between them and it is easy to notice after studying the official statistics made by The

Office for National Statistics. Almost in every bulletin the northern regions are the ones with

the lowest rates, deeply below the countrys average. Maybe one survey do not proof

anything but it is enough to study and compare several of them to see a kind of pattern,

which confirm that there is a economical difference in the United Kingdom between its

geographical regions. The first step to ending of existence of the North-South divide was

made recently when the Road Investment Plan was introduced to the Parliament. If similar

steps will be introduced regularly there is a chance that someday the conventional line

between the North and the South will be a history.

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